If you are a social media manager or marketer looking for practical tips on responding to social media comments in 2021, you have come to the right place.
If your business has a presence on social media (which it should be, unless you've just arrived in a time machine from the 18th century), you will undoubtedly receive comments from followers and potential customers. If you get it right, your responses and the customer service you provide them will go a long way towards empowering lifelong customers.
Recently, we looked at how to post the best responses on social media. In this article, we look at the importance of responding to all comments on social media with the best tips for doing it right.
Let's start...
Why is it so important to respond to comments on social media?
Responding to comments on social media should be a key element of your social media strategy.
Interacting with your audience through comments on social media is an effective way to connect with your target audience. By providing great customer service through comments on social media, you not only retain existing customers, but also win new ones.
So let's take a look at the best tips for successfully replying to comments on social media.
Aim for a good understanding
When responding to comments on social media, you should always come across as personal and approachable. You want to use comments as an opportunity to connect with your customers. By presenting your business as friendly and helpful, people will immediately feel a connection with you and your products and/or services.
When replying to customers, always use their name, try to answer their questions accurately, and if you follow pre-written guidelines, adapt them for each individual situation. By adding emojis, GIFs and other fun extras on social media, you can also build a rapport with each commentator.
Present a professional front
It is important that your comments on social media always maintain a professional front. This does not mean that your comments should lose their personal touch, but they should be consistent and maintain your company's voice across all social media channels.
Create a comment strategy on social media so that everyone in your company clearly knows how to respond to customers. Make sure you specify what style and tone of customer service is expected. Create official responses and templates for different situations or scenarios, so whatever the comment on social media, the response will always reflect your company's personality.
The key caveat here is to make sure you have a human touch and follow the guidelines of pre-prepared answers. The last thing you want is for your social help desk to be considered robotic.
React quickly
Show that you are interested in the thoughts and concerns of your commenters by responding quickly to comments. Quick replies are not only appreciated, they are now expected from you, 42% of consumers now expect a response to their comment on social media within 60 minutes.
Quick replies also make your customers feel valued. Pre-written responses can be useful here, but always remember to personalise them so they don't read like answers from a robot.
In some cases, you may not be sure how to answer more specific questions. This doesn't mean you still can't respond in time. Just acknowledge the comment and let the person know you are working on it. The answer itself is not that important, just make sure the customer knows they have been heard.
No problem is too small
Nobody likes to be ignored and a lack of response tells customers that they are not important. This can cause frustration which in turn can turn into customer dissatisfaction and cause problems later on.
Unanswered comments will also give your company a reputation for poor customer service. Research found that 81% of consumers would not recommend a company to a friend if they do not get a reply from them on social media. Whatever the comment, no matter how small, always reply to it with a reply.
Damage limitation
Be proactive and respond to all comments, especially the bad ones. Negative comments are inevitable, but by quickly responding to every comment, you can prevent most problems from escalating.
Again, it's good to have a clear strategy for dealing with negative comments. Depending on the situation, you may want to send a link so people can access further customer support, go to private messages or try to help directly with the problem with a quick and comprehensive response.
Stand out from the competition
Companies should use social media as a two-way communication channel. However, this is often not the case, as many organisations do not bother to engage with their social followers. Being constantly present and engaged with your audience through comments on social media helps your business quickly stand out from the rest.
Respond to all comments in a simple, faster way
As you already know or will soon discover, comments on social media come thick and fast.
The best way to stay informed is to have a social media management inbox. First, there is the convenience of a single view of your incoming comments across all social media channels. In addition, numerous features are now available to speed up and simplify the process of replying to comments. These include bulk actions and response templates.
As mentioned above, a poorly dissected or thoughtless response can have disproportionate consequences. This makes an approval flow and audit trail valuable for larger organisations.
Final thoughts on how to respond to comments on social media
As you can see, responding to comments on social media is easy once you have mastered the basics. The importance of responding to comments cannot be underestimated. So if you are promoting your business on social media, it is time to take control of your social interactions.
See here Some tips to grow your SME on social media!
